Sunday, July 11, 2010

RESTAURANT: Berta

After much anticipation, the new creation from the team that brought us Vini has arrived. Berta is a somewhat hard-to-find, smallish winebar in the Surry Hills end of the city. Wines (Italian origin) are served by the bottle, glass and tasting glass, allowing you to drink in any which way you want. The menu appears to change regularly and is a little bit better than just your average bar snacks (bit a little bit, I mean a lot).

We get in fairly early to beat the rush and, being so spoilt for choice that we have no idea what wine or food to order, we opt for the banquet menu with matching wines. It's a great idea and takes us through 6 or 7 of the dishes on the menu, each matched with a tasting glass of wine. For around $60, the food is simple, great value, packed with flavour and accompanies the wine well.

The wines that were matched to the food were on the cheaper side of things and weren't that great, but that was to be expected for 6/7 glasses that cost around the $40 in total. So I think next time I'll instead opt for a bottle of something decent to accompany the food, and there wasn't a shortage of that on the wine list.

Service is warm and the room, while a tad noisy when full, is well designed. My one gripe is that the tables were too close together. I think there was 10cm between our table at the next, meaning it was only possible to get past to leave or go to the bathroom by making them shift their table over and brush past.

Next time I'm in the mood for some Italian wine and hearty food in a casual setting I'll be sure to head to Berta.